Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said on Sunday that he needed to “debunk” the myth that teachers’ unions do not want to reopen schools and attacked California Governor Gavin Newsom for not prioritizing vaccines in Los Angeles – but if dodged the question of whether students would be able to fully resume classroom teaching this school year.
“I want to debunk this myth that teachers’ unions, at least our union, don’t want to reopen schools,” Weingarten told NBC News’ Meet the Press. ‘ “Teachers know that face-to-face education is very important and we would say that it is pre-pandemic. We knew that distance education is not a good substitute ”.
“Isn’t this school year likely to have full places at school?” Chuck Todd of NBC News asked.
“What does it mean to open the school completely? If you do a physical distance of almost two meters, you are basically saying that in a school there will be about 50 or 60% of the people there at the same time. Not 100%,” Weingarten replied . “The question really becomes, we have 30% more space, we have 30% more teachers. What I think we need to do, we really need to have as much presence as possible now. Have the mitigation strategies, have a great semester of summer to get the kids back on a voluntary basis and then really plan for next year. “
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President Biden has repeatedly promised to open most K-8 schools until his 100th term, April 30. But new guidelines on the reopening of schools released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday may delay the return to face-to-face education even more. Using the latest science and data available on COVID-19, the operational strategy for phased mitigation includes guidance on masking, physical distance, hand washing and respiratory etiquette, building ventilation and cleaning and contact tracking.
Critics accused the White House of yielding to pressure from the teachers’ unions and pressuring the CDC to manipulate its advice.
“You can see that as the unions came out and said they didn’t want classroom learning, you saw the White House press the CDC to reverse the direction that was very clear,” Rep. Steve Scalise, R- Over there. , said in an interview with ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday.
“Our kids can’t wait,” said Scalise. “They need to be in the classroom today. Science says they can be in the classroom today. The question is, are there any wills in Washington that are bowing to the teachers’ unions now?”
Weingarten said the CDC’s latest guidance and the resources Biden is trying to get in the $ 1.9 trillion package create a “roadmap” to define risks that boil down to three factors: layered mitigation strategies, testing for track asymptomatic spread and prioritization of vaccines.
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“There is a roadmap now, so you can really follow it in terms of defining those risks,” Weingarten said in an interview with NBC anchor Chuck Todd. “Not that all teachers have to be vaccinated before opening any school, but you must align the prioritization of the vaccine with the reopening of schools.”
The leader of one of America’s largest teacher unions, Weingarten, said New York City, home to the nation’s largest public school system, set a positive example for the rest of America to follow.
“There is no perfect solution, but frankly, I think New York City has done a good job when it comes to showing the way. Great school district. Lots of problems in terms of old buildings and we learned a lot from what the city New York City did in September and October, “said Weingarten.
Weingarten said a recent survey showed that 85% of its members would be comfortable at school if they had the kind of testing, layered mitigation and vaccine prioritization like New York is doing.
She also praised Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, who “actually made sure that all teachers and school officials who wanted the vaccine were vaccinated in recent weeks.” Reopening plans carried out by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, a Republican, and Oregon Governor Kate Brown, a Democrat, were also praised by Weingarten, who then analyzed how Newsom was dealing with the pandemic response in California.
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“When I hear politicians, when I hear Governor Newsom saying that you will always find a way out, well, why doesn’t he prioritize teachers in LA, where they were in the purple, purple zone – not the red zone?” Weingarten said.
“I think the problem is that if the NFL could figure out how to do this, in terms of tests and protocols, if schools are so important, we will do it. And my members want it, they just want to be safe.”
“You find everything you’re looking for, so if we want to find reasons not to reopen, we’ll find a lot of reasons. But if we want to start building our ways of creating strategies and ways of getting where we all want to go, we’ll find that too,” said Newsom in a recent interview.
Asked whether she supported local teacher unions, including the one in Fairfax, Va., Who does not want a return to face-to-face education until all children are vaccinated, Weingarten said: “Teacher unions are not monolithic.”
“What you are hearing when you hear this is that people are afraid. We have to face fear with the facts, which is what we are trying to do. So we had Dr. Fauci, for example, in two prefectures”, Weingarten said. “We had a vaccine prefecture with specialists on this and, just as we are facing the vaccine hesitation with facts, evidence and data, we need to do the same in terms of educators. What we learned in our research and also in our experience, when people are really at school with the protocols in place, they trust them more and then you just have to educate people in terms that way. “
Weingarten said 71% of its members fear taking COVID-19 home.
“Look, we had 500,000 deaths and we had terrible realities here, but teachers in this country understand that face-to-face education is really important, so in the end, we are going to make the kind of strategy we need.”
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Evie Fordham of Fox News contributed to this report.